Care Bears Crystal Hearts: Spirit Unleashed
by Faerie-StarV
Summary: Changed the title from Sorceress Revenge but story remains the same. Evil Spirit came back for revenge on the Care Bears and Nicholas by using Nicholas friends and family as an uncaring bloodthirsty zombies. Can they stop her in her new form?
1. Prologue

_Hello everyone! This is my very first fanfic and I should warn you, I'm not the world's best writer since writing is not my best subject. I'm more of an artist than a writer since it's so much easier for me to visualize things instead of just writing it down. _

_Moving on! I've been meaning to do the Care Bears fan fiction for two years but haven't gotten around to it nor had a confidence to do it since I'm really insecure of my writing skills. As you can see, I'm a Care Bears fan and I've enjoyed the series as well as the movies. This fanficiton is basically a sequel of the Care Bears Movie. I first saw the film in 1988 when I was four and after watching Nicholas and the Care Bears sealing the Evil Spirit back in her book. She was never seen in a full body nor had an actual name or why she's sealed in the book in the first place, nothing! Since then, I've always wondered where did she come from, why does she want to get rid of the caring, and so on. It's strange that they never give the villains a back-story of why they're doing such terrible things like the other shows do. I've given her a name (which I won't say it because I don't want to spoil the surprise and you'll see it in a few chapters) and her body (you'll see the drawing of her in my Deviantart account which is listed in my profile). Lastly, CBCH stands for Care Bears Crystal Hearts and this is a first part of the series based on Care Bears Movie, the title of this story that I'm currently writing is Sorceress's Revenge (I know, that title is so cliché). A quick note for all the Care Bear fans, this story is not canon; it's purely fan fiction._

_Happy reading and enjoy!_

_**Edit**_

_I had to resubmit it because for some reason, the edited version is not showing up here, only I can see it changed but after it was saved, it remains the same as if it's never been edited. I know I went back and correct my mistakes thanks to my beta reader, Erzibeth-Malfoy and fixed it on my word doc just in case. Since the editing version decided to be a jerk to me, I have no choice but to delete the original and resubmit this one instead. I apologize for any inconvenience. _

Prologue

It was dark and stormy night as rain poured down heavily on the Cherrywood Orphanage. Mrs. Kim Cherrywood was peering through the window, as she was anxious for her husband, Mr. Nicholas Cherrywood, for driving home from doing the errands. She felt better when she saw her husband's car lights approaching the driveway.

Mr. Cherry wood pulled up the driveway, grabbed the grocery bags from the front seat, and ran inside. His wife greeted him at the front door by giving him a kiss.

"I'm so glad you made it home, Nicholas," said Mrs. Cherrywood.

"Me too, Kim," Mr. Cherrywood said. "It started pouring on the way hone and it was pretty crazy out there. So, how are the kids?"

"They are in a rec room," she said as she took some of the groceries from him and walked to the kitchen.

Once they arrived in the kitchen, they unpacked the groceries and left some of them out for dinner. Mr. Cherrywood decided to head to the rec room to check on the kids. He entered the room and saw nine children playing. John, Zach, and Terrence were playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Nintendo Wii, Edgar was reading Harry Potter on the couch, Felicia and Crystal were at the one end of the room having a tea party with dolls and stuffed animals, Jackie was drawing a picture, Mary was looking through a Martha Stewart magazine, and Amy was playing with a blocks. They all seemed to be pretty occupied with their own things until he cleared his throat as he entered the room. The cough caught the kids attention, causing them to stop what they're doing, and run to him with their arms stretched out to hug him.

"Mr. Cherrywood!" they yelled excitedly as they practically tackled the middle-aged man.

"Easy, fellas. Your going to break the old man's back."

"Sorry, Mr. Cherrywood," said the kids as they quickly got off of him.

"It's all right," said Cherrywood as he got up and dust himself off.

The kids went back what they were doing except Amy. The three year old just toddled toward to him with her arms stretched out since she couldn't hug him earlier due to the other kids. He smiled at her and picked her up so she could hug him.

"I missed you, Mr. Cherrywood," said Amy.

"And I missed you too, sweet pea," said Mr. Cherrywood as he give her a kiss on her cheek.

Just then, a loud thunderclap flashed brightly, causing everyone to jump and then the electricity went out, plunging the room to darkness. Amy began to cry because the lightning sound scared her and the darkness didn't help either. The kids groaned when the lights went out, especially the boys as they were in the middle of playing a video game. Mr. Cherrywood began to calm Amy down as he was still holding her. Soon Mrs. Cherrywood came into the room with a flashlight and a candle.

"You may want to light up some candles, honey," she said as she handed him some matches.

"Thanks, dear," he said.

He set Amy down on the floor and began lighting candles around the rec room. Once the room was lit, everyone relaxed, as the room was no longer in darkness. Amy stopped crying when the darkness no longer scared her.

"This is so spooky," said John.

"You said it, John," said Crystal.

"Mr. Cherrywood, how about you tell us a scary story?" Edgar asked.

"Yeah!" all the kids said in agreement.

"It's a perfect mood and atmosphere to do that," said Terrence.

"Yep!" said Zach. "You should tell us the story about ghosts that haunts the visitors!"

"No!" said Mary. "He should tell us an evil wizard that raises the dead and cause destruction on the world!"

"No, it should be zombies like Zombieland!" said John.

"It should be a giant, disgusting blood sucking worms!" said Crystal with a big grin on her face.

"Ewwwww" said Mary and Felicia as they scrunch their faces in disgust.

"Well…" said Mr. Cherrywood.

"Please?" said all the kids as they gave him puppy dog eyes.

"Alright," he said.

"Yay!" the kids cheered.

Amy toddled over to Mr. Cherrywood with her arms stretched out so he picked her up once again and walked over to an easy chair. He sat down and placed Amy on his lap like he usually does whenever he tells the kids stories.

"Story Hat! Story Hat!" Amy pointed out.

The 'Story Hat' is actually Mr. Cherrywood's old top hat he used for in his younger days when he was a magician and only used it whenever he tells the children stories. Since then, he never starts unless he wears his Story Hat.

"I'll get his hat!" said Terrence as he quickly ran out of the room with a flashlight in his hand. He came back with an old, worn out top hat and handed it over to his guardian.

"Here's your hat."

"Thank you, Terrence," said Mr. Cherrywood as he took it from him and placed it on top of his head. He lit the candle on the end table and readjusted Amy so she can face him properly.

"Mr. Cherrywood, before you start your story, I have something that I wanted to ask you," said Edgar.

"Sure, what is it you wanted to ask me?" asked Mr. Cherrywood.

"Two nights ago, you told us about the Care Bears saving the world from Evil Spirit book and was using Nicholas to do her bidding. They locked her back in the book again so she won't cause havoc to the world," said Edgar.

"Yes, all of you fell asleep on that part and I had to start on where I left off last night so you kids can remember the ending," said Mr. Cherrywood.

"Well," said Edgar. "I was curios of what happened to her and wouldn't someone else open up her book, causing it to start all over again?"

"As a matter of fact, it did happen again," Mr. Cherrywood said.

"Really? Could you tell us that story of her returning to the world again?" asked Edgar.

"Yeah!" said all the kids.

"Well, if that's what you kids wanted, then I'll tell you the story of the Evil Spirit coming back for revenge," he said.

Mr. Cherrywood turned his head to the kids as they sat in the floor, waiting impatiently for him to start the story.

"This story will be about the Care Bears and the return of the Evil Spirit. She came back for revenge not just the Care Bears but Nicholas as it turns out that she was after more than just getting revenge and rid all of the caring. Her goals were too much for Nicholas and the Care Bears to stop her so they had to get the Three Caring Goddesses for help. The Care Bears also learned that there's other Care Bears that they never learned about and couldn't determine whether they're allies or enemies.

This takes place a year after they locked the Evil Spirit away. It all began when Nicholas had a nightmare that she returned with a full body…

_I hope all of you enjoyed my first attempt writing my fanfic. Please review me as well as critique me, I would really appreciate it. I got a half of Chapter 1 done so please be patient, thank you. :) _


	2. Chapter 1

_Thanks so much for the reviews and critiques, everyone. I really appreciate that you guys took the time to do that and I want to say thanks. _

_It's been about a year since I last wrote this chapter. I apologize for a long wait due to working three jobs and other art projects that I'm swamped in. I was writing the short summaries of the chapters for this story to make it easier for me to write it out. _

_My first beta reader hasn't responded to me for months when I submitted my chapter one. I finished it in March and sent it to her to proofread it but three months later, I still haven't heard a word from her. I contacted her as well and still nothing. That's when I begin to look a new Beta Reader and I found a couple so far. One of them, Amanda2324 was kind enough to Beta Read my chapter one and it took some time due to her college work but she got it done and it was worth a wait. Thanks so much, Amanda! _

Chapter 1

The Midway Fair lies in ruins with darkness everywhere. The whole world was dark, empty, and miserable. Nicholas Cherrywood was standing alone in those ruins as if he's the only human boy left in the world. He heard an all-to familiar female voice, one that he had not heard in a year, and he looked above the ruins of the fair. He saw a woman standing above the ruins and she was laughing manically. He recognized the woman's face and voice from last year. Her face is green with glowing yellow eyes and an evil grin as she looks at him. She is known as Evil Spirit. She was only a face on the spell book last time he saw her. This time, however, she is standing with a full body, holding the very same spell book that had held her captive for a long time.

Nicholas couldn't figure out how she could have freed herself from her own spell book and bring destruction on the world. He couldn't find his friends, Kim and Jason, or the Care Bears, the protectors of love and caring. It was just him and the Evil Spirit. Alone in a dark, loveless, careless world. He just stood there, frozen in fear, while she peered down at him like a predator would their prey. He knew what harm she could cause; what she could do to him, and what she did to the others. He wanted to run, but terror prevented his legs from moving. He could only stand there and stare.

Evil Spirit raised her hand and chanted the ancient language from her spell book. A ball of dark flame erupted from her hand and it grew even bigger as she continued to chant some more. She then threw the dark flame at Nicholas and as it's approaching to him faster than it was before. As soon it came closer to him, he could see a form of human skull with fangs opening wide to show more fiery inferno inside to read to devour him.

Nicholas woke up suddenly, panting and sweating as he couldn't just shake that off the nightmare he's been having for a week. He looked at his clock next to him and its 5:28 A.M., he just sighted and laid back down on his bed. He tried to go back to sleep but couldn't so he stay awake and was reminiscing of his dream based on what actually happened a year ago.

It all began on March 24 when he received an old trunk. It was a very large trunk, one that Mr. Alfred Fettuccini, his boss, had ordered from Joe's Antiques, hoping he could use something from inside it in his magic show. Nicholas was an apprentice at the time. He remembered his clumsiness all too well. Whenever he tried practicing magic tricks or assisting Mr. Fettuccini, he always failed or unintentionally broke something. It always caused an outburst of rage from Mr. Fettuccini. Nothing could ever please Mr. Fettuccini, so Nicholas felt like a failure. His lack of friends didn't help him feel any better about the situation. He tried to make friends, but they would make fun of his mistakes or wouldn't go near him because he was adopted.

He couldn't remember his birth parents at all. He was three years old when they placed him in some orphanage, where he lived until Mr. Fettuccini and his wife, Mrs. Jean Fettuccini, adopted him. His adoption into the Fettuccini family only occurred three years ago. At the time, he considered it the best day ever, because no other parent would adopt him because he was "too old." Before he was adopted, he spent most of his time looking through the window, seeing the kids or babies walking out with their new parents and taken into their new homes. The orphanage wasn't too bad since the caretakers were friendly and loved the orphan kids as their own. He looked up to them and decided that one day, when he grew up, he would open his own orphanage. Like what the couple who took care of him and the others did. Nicholas had to share a room with six other boys and befriended all of them until they were adopted. He missed them terribly and became lonely afterwards. He would make friends with some of the kids and then it seemed the next day, they were adopted.

He was filled with joy when the Fettuccini's adopted him. He finally got a family. However, he was surprised to discover that his family literally lived in a circus. He learned that Mr. Fettuccini was a magician, while his wife handled the finances. Nicholas met the other circus performs and they amazed him with their performances. He decided he wanted to do the same things as they did. That's when Mr. Fettuccini decided to train him to be a magician. During those years he slowly made improvements until he hit his preteen years

Present time, Nicholas decided to get up and shower, since he couldn't get back to sleep. He stripped and went to the shower. As he washed himself, once more his mind drifted to the past. This time it's just a year previous, before the Evil Spirit incident.

March 24 was the specific day, though it wasn't a good day for Nicholas. He woke up late because his alarm didn't go off, he got scolded by Mrs. Fettuccini for sleeping in, he spilled his lunch on his circus mates, which ruined their costumes (putting everyone behind schedule), and he kept messing up his magic tricks. It didn't help that whenever he tried to help or make up for the damage he caused, he ended up causing more problems. He had no friends to talk to for comfort, so he was left lonely and miserable. That's when she came.

Mr. Fettuccini yelled at Nicholas for dropping the trunk and breaking half of the contents. After his fit of rage was finished, Mr. Fettuccini told Nicholas to check on the other items to see f any survived. After that, Nicholas was left alone to clean up the mess. He felt depressed again and didn't notice a book, wrapped in blue silk with a red Celtic symbol on it float out of the trunk and land next to him. He picked it up and just placed it on a table next to him to look at it later. He didn't see when the stamp glowed brightly then melted away, causing the silk cover to fall off. After that, he wished out loud that he could get everyone to like him.

After he said it, he heard a woman's voice that he knew it couldn't be Mrs. Fettuccini. That's when he realized that the voice came from the book that he placed it on the table earlier. The cover revealed an eerie, green face imprinted on it with Celtic symbols on the corners. He got startled and fell back into the trunk and knocked himself out for a short time. At first, he thought he was dreaming about it. He soon realized that it was, in fact, real. The woman's voice that came through the book told him that she could help him get what he wanted. She convinced him to unlock the book. Once he did that, the book opened itself and revealed a live face of a woman who could have been no older than her mid-thirties. Her eyes were yellow, as was her face. She revealed herself as the Spirit and that she wanted to help him. She told him to read the spells that were written on the book like putting Mr. Fettuccini to sleep. He thought that was amazing and decided to do as she wanted. However, he was stopped when he heard a new voice.

Nicholas look at the voice and saw a small, red bear with a big, red heart symbol on his tummy at the doorway. He called himself Tenderheart Bear, a Care Bear who came from Care-a-Lot. Tenderheart tried to convince him that he can help him and that the lady's head in a book, known as the Evil Spirit, was not to be trusted. The Evil Spirit, however, wasn't too pleased that the red bear tried to interfere with her plans, and used her magic to lock Tenderheart into a cage. Nicholas was shocked and amazed at her power and she told him that he can do something like that. He decided to take up her offer and take Mr. Fettuccini's place while he was asleep. Nicholas told Tenderheart that he's not doing anything wrong, since it was only temporary and he planned to come back to the trailer to release Tenderheart from the cage. Looking back, he should have listened to Tenderheart instead of Evil Spirit.

The water became cold after being in a shower for so long, and the chill broke him from his thoughts. He shut off the water and stepped out of the shower to dry himself off using a towel. He wrapped the towel around his waist and walked out of the bathroom. He quickly changed into a white T-shirt, a blue plaid flannel, and beige baggy pants. Once finished dressing himself, he walked over to the living room and sat down on an old couch. He looked at the wall clock to read the time. 6:15 AM. It's still too early for him to go over to the circus crew cafeteria to eat. It did not open until seven. Instead, Nicholas gazed at the window. The darkness of the outside world allowed his thoughts to once more wander back to his past experiences with the Evil Spirit.

After he left Mr. Fettuccini and Tenderheart behind to start his magic show, Nicholas went over to the show tent and introduced himself to an audience. He figured with Spirit to help him out, things would go smoothly. How wrong he was.

First he got drenched from the gush of water that came out of his hat, which caused the audience to laugh at him. Then he was suddenly lifted into the air enough to make him slip. He fell on his behind as a result. The audience only laughed harder. At the time, he had no clue why those 'accidents' happened to him. He was only later informed, by Tenderheart Bear, that the Spirit was the one who did everything in order to trick him, to think that he's the one who messed up. However, that's when she told him to cast a spell on the children, to get them to stop laughing at him. He took her advice and cast the spell. Though the laughter of the children stopped, they instead became violent, and started to fight each other. Tenderheart tried to stop him from doing further damage, but Nicholas used another spell to teleport away, leaving Tenderheart behind with the hostile and angry children.

The spell took Nicholas and the Evil Spirit in to an old carnival ride called Haunted Coaster Castle. Fitting, since their new lair was the "castle" of the coaster ride. The Evil Spirit's face changed to dark green, her eyes a fiery red. Nicholas thought that the change was creepy, but kept such thoughts to himself. Upon the Evil Spirit's orders, Nicholas casted more spells on the town to make the people uncaring so they could suffer like he did. During that time, he cast a sleeping spell on Mrs. Fettuccini and others to sleep so they wouldn't get in the way. Things were going well for him until the Evil Spirit told him that two children weren't affected by any of his spells, as they were protected by the Care Bears.

He wanted to leave them be since he figured that he'd gotten far enough with his revenge. However, the Evil Spirit told him otherwise, that 'others' will go after him since he cast those spells, and he'd have to pay the consequences. That got Nicholas worried, as he didn't have any intention to cause harm on others, yet feared what the consequences would be if he didn't continue. So he cast another spell that created a purple shape shifting monster cloud with yellow eyes to capture the two children and bring them to their castle lair. Evil Spirit mentioned something about a 'lesson' for everyone, which confused Nicholas. "What lesson?" he thought. "And who are the 'others'?" Once the monster left to do its task, he tried asking Spirit who were the 'others' and what 'lesson' she kept talking about. She just quickly told him to "never mind that," and that he should just keep gather the ingredients for the next spell. She never told him of the 'lesson' or who the 'others' were; she always avoided talking about it. His guess was the Care Bears, but he didn't know for sure.

The Care Bears and the two children finally arrived at the fair some time later. The Evil Spirit alerted Nicholas of this while he was trying to doze off. She then told him that he needed to gather the ingredients for the final spell, which would get rid of all of the caring in the world. That's when Nicholas realized that she had gone too far and was a crazy lady so he tried to stop her, but she cast a spell on him to keep him under her control. While under her spell, she forced him to get the ingredients and capture the children. He was aware of what he was doing. He watched the whole thing. Unfortunately, due to the powerful spell, watching was all he could do, while his body acted all on its own.

While Nicholas was collecting the ingredients, the two children accidently ran into him. They realized who he was and fled from him, so he gave chase. Luckily, the Care Bears distracted him, so the two children had time to get away. Cozy Heart Penguin splashed him using the water from a dunk pool, which angered him. He fired a laser from his finger at her, but she ducked, barely avoiding it. Then Swift Heart Rabbit showed up and hopped onto his face to take his attention away from Cozy Heart. It worked, and their diversion also gave the children enough time to hide. He almost had Swift Heart when she got cocky and hit the garbage can. The thing that saved her was when he found the final ingredient for the final spell, which was some sticky bubblegum that he stepped on. Nicholas then lost interest in Swift Heart and headed back to Haunted Coaster Castle to cast the final spell.

Once the preparations for the spell were complete, he held out his shoe that had the gum still sticking on the bottom sole. He was trying to fight off the control spell, to prevent himself from casting it. Just then, the Care Bears showed up in a roller coaster and used their Care Bear Stare on him. The final spell was already cast when they arrived, however. The Evil Spirit prevented any further help on Nicholas and threw the Care Bears to the coaster, and the coaster rode away. Nicholas was back under her control and was used to confront the bears and the Care Bear Cousins at the front of the castle's entrance. The Care Bears used their stare on him again but it didn't do anything as the Spirit prevented that by using a shield spell on him. That's when the Care Cousins used their Cousin Call by making animal sounds as loud as they can possible. It seemed to take an effect on Nicholas as he was slowly being freed from her control. However, the Spirit used another controlling spell on him to counter the caring effects. The Bears used up their stare as they collapsed in exhaustion and the Cousins were out of breath from their Call, so Nicholas was once again under Spirit's influence, and all hope seemed lost for freeing him.

Things were getting bad for the Bears and Cousins as they were out of energy. Just before it could get any worse, Kim and Jason came out of hiding and rushed onto the scene. Tenderheart tried to stop them, but they refused as they wanted to help them and Nicholas. They both told Nicholas that they knew how he felt because they used to be like him and that they wanted to be their friend. Friends being something that Nicholas had wanted all along. That was enough for him to snap out of it. The Spirit wasn't too pleased as she tried to get him back under control but he resisted and forced the book closed. He managed to hold it down while Tenderheart yelled at Jason to get the key for the book. He'd gotten the key after freeing himself from the cage earlier, and then he'd given it to Jason. Jason got the key out and was about to use it when Spirit used emitted a magic beam from her keyhole, and destroyed the key.

Luckily, Secret Bear created another key for them to use, so Jason took it and locked Evil Spirit's book for good. Nicholas finally felt free from her spell and he thanked Kim and Jason for saving him. The Care Bears and Cousins cheered for their victory and left the Haunted Coaster Castle. Soon thereafter, the sun was shining, everyone turned back to normal with no memory of what happened, and the fair looked happy once again. The Care Bears bid a farewell to the three kids and left to go back to their own homes, Care-a-Lot and the Forest of Feelings. Nicholas realized that he hadn't seen the adult's, or Mr. and Mrs. Fettuccini and feared that they were still under the sleeping spell. He went to Mr. Fettuccini's trailer first, since it was closer, but the magician burst out of the trailer before he arrived. Thankfully, he was in a good mood.

Nicholas figured that since he closed the Spirit's book, it cut off her spells on others, so they were freed from her. Mr. Fettuccini told Nicholas that he wanted a partnership with the boy, and Nicholas happily accepted. Nicholas practiced as much as he could and got better at it. He even invited Kim, Jason, and their new adopted parents over to his magic show. An hour before the show started, Nicholas wrapped the Spirit's spell book up with his cape, tied it up with a rope with some bricks as well. He then proceeded to toss it into the river. He watched it sink to the bottom, where he no longer see it, and then left to head to the magic show tent.

Nicholas snapped from his thoughts and looked at his wall clock. Five minutes after seven it read. He'd been lost in his own thoughts the whole time, so the time flew by rather quickly. But now, he was hungry. As he was getting up to go off to get it, he also decided that afterwards, he would call Kim and Jason to see if they wanted to hang out. He looked forward to that. Ever since the Evil Spirit incident, he kept in contact with them, despite the fair traveling all over the states. Now they were settled here and had been since the previous week, but only now had the time to spend time with them. He threw his shoes on and left his trailer, heading down to the food court building to eat. He couldn't wait to truly begin his day.

_Next chapter will be coming up soon and I've already started chapter two. I'll try to get it done before the holidays so Amanda will have to proof read it on her break so expect a couple of months before the next one shows up. Please feel free to review my story, thank you. _


	3. Chapter 2

_Once again, so sorry for being late to update the story. The truth is, I was almost done with Chapter 2 but had to make some minor changes to get the story along. I was also working full time at my mother's hair salon as a bookkeeper/assistant and had to quit my second job to start my art freelancing. I got into other fandoms and projects which too kept me busy. I tend to take more things than I can chew and I really need to slow down to take it easy._

_Anyways, I do want to thank you for the reviews and support. It means a lot to me and I want to continue the story since I've actually enjoyed writing it, despite I'm not a world's best writer. So, here's chapter two that everyone is waiting for. Happy reading and keep on caring!_

* * *

><p>Chapter 2<p>

Nicholas left his trailer and headed towards the cafeteria to eat breakfast. He arrived and saw that Mr. and Mrs. Fettuccini, their niece Haley, and other circus crew were there too for breakfast. He grabbed the tray and went in line with them.

"Good morning, hun," said Mrs. Fettuccini as she give him a hug and a kiss.

"Morning, Mrs. Fettuccini," said Nicholas as he hugged her back.

Mr. Fettuccini and the other circus crew exchanged good mornings to one another except for Haley. The blond-haired, quiet six year old was getting herself a cereal with banana and chocolate milk and headed over to the table to sit with her uncle and aunt. Nicholas quickly got himself scrambled eggs, two slices of bacon, two sausages, and an English muffin with blueberry jelly pack and an orange juice, and went to sit with the Fettuccini's, next to Haley.

"Good morning, Haley," said Nicholas as he smiled at her.

"Morning," said Haley in a quiet voice. Nicholas noticed that she doesn't look happy again as he knew why.

Haley Fettuccini came to live with her aunt and uncle, Jean and Alfred Fettuccini. Alfred's brother, Hank, and along with his wife, Lisa, died in a car accident when they were on their way from eating at a restaurant. It happened three months ago and poor Haley had constantly been sent to foster homes until Alfred and Jean finally were granted custody of her. Haley was going through hard time and was having trouble fitting in with a circus crew. She wouldn't talk with anyone nor tried to make friends. So Nicholas slowly introduced himself and helped her to get through hard times. She slowly opened up herself to him but it took some time for her to trust him. Her outbursts were less frequent and she started to get along better with the crew.

They allowed her to be Nicholas and Mr. Fettuccini's assistant so she can take her mind off of her parents. She seemed to be enjoying it, but not for long. Nicholas figured that the Care Bears could help her like what they did to him, Kim, and Jason.

"So Haley," said Nicholas. "Are you looking forward to practice for our next magic show?"

"Yeah…" she answered quietly. She finished her breakfast and took the empty bowl to the dish bin. She came to back to Nicholas and the Fettuccini's.

"I'm going to walk around if it's okay with you," said Haley.

"Do you want me to come with you?" asked Nicholas.

Haley shook her head. "No, thank you," she said. "You just got your breakfast and haven't eaten yet. Besides, I just want to go by myself."

"Okay, sweetie," said Mrs. Fettuccini. "But come right back so you can get ready to perform with Nicholas and Uncle Alfred at eleven."

"Yes, Aunt Jean," said Haley and she left to head outside. Jean sighed and looked back at Nicholas.

"That poor girl, while she is getting better, I just wish I knew what we can do to make her feel at home. She still misses her parents terribly," said Jean.

Nicholas thought over and decided that perhaps the Care Bears could help Haley out. After all, they succeeded in helping Kim and Jason out when they too went through the same thing like Haley did. Perhaps Kim and Jason can help out as well; especially because Jason is same age as Haley.

"Mrs. Fettuccini," said Nicholas. "My friends, Kim and Jason, lost their parents too but they got help through my 'good friends', so I thought, maybe I can invite them over after the show to help Haley out? Jason is same age as she is and would be a good start for her to have a friend." He couldn't tell them it was the Care Bears since nobody would believe him and he also wasn't sure how well known those Bears were on this planet.

"That is a marvelous idea, Nicky!" said Mr. Fettuccini.

"I'll have to agree, love," said Mrs. Fettuccini. "Kim and Jason are such good kids and I'm sure they can be good friends with Haley. She really needs friends for comfort."

"Thanks, guys," said Nicholas. He went back eating his breakfast until his thought drifted back to his nightmare of Evil Spirit. He couldn't stop thinking about it made him feel uneasy. Her in a fully body and capable of destruction was what was causing him to worry. Although originally, she was just a face in the book and doesn't look too threatening to everyone, but there's an old saying, you can't judge a book by its cover. She was dangerous and can pack more things in a punch than she appeared to be able.

Nicholas could never forget that he was under Spirit's control. He felt even more unhappy, angry, uncaring, and even psychotic, much like the spell he cast on the kids. He wondered that if Kim, Jason, and the Care Bears hadn't saved him, would that have caused her to be released from the book and gain the body like he saw in his dream? He wasn't sure and he certainly didn't want to find out.

"Honey," said Mrs. Fettuccini. "Are you alright? Are you still worried about Haley?"

Nicholas was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't realize that she and Mr. Fettuccini saw his worried look on his face.

"Oh, I'm fine. Yeah, I just can't help worrying about her," he lied. He couldn't tell them about his nightmare or about Evil Spirit. He couldn't help but feel guilty for putting both of them to sleep while being under Spirit's influence and nearly causing the destruction of the world. He quickly finished up his breakfast, took the dishes and dumped them in the bin, and ran back to the table to Mr. and Mrs. Fettuccini. He gave both of them a big hug, which surprise them.

"I'm heading back to my trailer to call Kim and Jason to see if they can come over, then I'm gonna practice for the show," said Nicholas.

"You do that, Nicky and I'll see you at my tent show at ten thirty. Don't be late," said Mr. Fettuccini.

"I won't," said Nicholas and left the cafeteria to head back to his trailer.

Up in the sky, far away from human eyes to see, was a beautiful sky land known as Care-A-Lot. Inhabited by colorful bears and animals, they were doing their usual work of spreading love and caring. They would rely on their Caring Meter, a tall heart-shaped meter that let the bears know how much caring there is on Earth. They have to keep it full at all times. If it drops, that would mean that there's trouble on Earth and it would usually mean that a child or adult were in trouble or a villain like No Heart was spreading his evil across the world. The Care Bears or Cousins would go down to Earth to take care of it, and once the caring is back, the meter would go up again.

Another group of bears that resembled animals were known as The Care Bear Cousins or Care Cousins for short. Rather than bears, they consisted of lion, elephant, cat, dog, monkey, and so forth. They lived in The Forest of Feelings, a beautiful forest that had colorful trees with leaves shaped like hearts; star and heart roads paved the way through the clouds instead of grass, and colorful birds would sing and chirp all day long. Sometimes the Bears and Cousins would use the forest to hold an annual race, go out on a picnic, hold parties, camping out, or just relax with nature.

Wish Bear, an aqua-green female bear with a wishing star tummy symbol, was looking down at Earth using a starscope (shaped-star telescope) to see if everything was fine or if a person was in trouble and in needs of help. She continued to look until she heard a loud ding. Looking up to see where the sound came from, she saw that it was the Caring Meter. It dropped down to two hearts, which worried her, and quickly looked back to her starscope to search the cause of it. Her scope sensors directed her to Midway Fair, which she recognizes. She saw two people that needed help and Nicholas was one of them. After thoroughly observing the problem, she put her scope away and quickly ran over to the Hall of Hearts.

"Tenderheart, Braveheart!" yelled Wish Bear.

Tenderheart, a red male bear with red heart symbol on his tummy looked up from Braveheart, an off-yellow male lion with a red heart with a crown resting on it for his tummy symbol, which also looked up as well.

"What is it, Wish Bear?" asked Tenderheart.

"Yeah, what's wrong? Some trouble on Earth?" asked Braveheart.

"…Yes…" panted Wish Bear as she tried to catch her breath. She leaned over to them and explained the situation.

"Got it," said Tenderheart. "Bravehaert and Wish, I want you to round up the Bears and Cousins and tell them to come to the Hall of Hearts for Care Bear Conference in thirty minutes."

"Will do, Tenderheart!" said Wish and Braveheart as they split up to find the rest of the Care Bear family. Tenderheart went inside the Hall of Hearts and set up the chairs for the conference.

Thirty minutes later, every Care Bear and Care Bear Cousin was seated and waiting for the discussion. Tenderheart and Braveheart stood up from their seats to discuss what Wish Bear told them earlier.

"Alright, Care Bears and Care Cousins," said Tenderheart. "As you guys noticed, the Caring Meter had dropped two whole hearts due to two people on Earth. Wish Bear informed us that it was Nicholas Cherrywood, the young magician we saved from Evil Spirit last year. He is not only having trouble sleeping due to him having nightmares, but he's also worried for his adopted sister, Haley Fettuccini.

"Haley is another one of the two people that needs help. She is lonely, is having trouble adjusting her new family, and is afraid to make friends. Nicholas is trying his best to help her but some of us will go down to Earth and help them out.

"So, do we have any volunteers to go down to Earth?" asked Tenderheart.

"Secret Bear and I'll go," said Friend Bear, a peach female bear with two smiley flowers for her tummy symbol. Secret Bear, a female tangerine bear with a heart shaped locket with a keyhole symbol on her tummy nodded with agreement, since she rarely spoke and would only whisper to communicate. She was always with Friend Bear and trusted most of her secrets with her.

"We can take care of Haley since she's going through what Kim and Jason did last year. Besides, Secret and I would like to see Nicholas again and see if we can help him out too," said Friend.

"Great!" said Tenderheart. "Anyone else?"

"I'll go," yawned Bedtime Bear, a male blue-colored bear with a sleeping crescent moon with a night cap on as a tummy symbol. "I can help Nicholas with his sleeping problem and whatever's causing his nightmares. He really needs a good night's sleep."

"I'll come along as well," said Braveheart. "Something might cause him to be afraid of something and I can help Bedtime out so Nicholas can face something that he fears."

"Good, good," said Tenderheart as he wrote something down on his heart shaped clipboard.

"Now that we have that out of the way, there's another topic that Bright Heart Raccoon wanted to share with you guys. Bright Heart?"

"Yes, Tenderheart," said a light purple male raccoon with a gold-yellow heart shaped light bulb on his tummy as he stood up from his chair.

"We have discovered an ancient island last week and, as we found the ruins, believe that it may be the earliest Caring Kingdom.

"It all started back when Harmony Bear and I were in True Heart's room, helping her and Noble Heart out for spring cleaning…."

(Flashback)

Bright Heart and Harmony, a dark purple female bear with a three hearts symbol, one big red heart with two small pink hearts on it, were in True Heart Bear's room to clear thought boxes and other junk.

"Thanks so much," said True Heart, a pastel yellow female bear with a multi colored star with a small yellow heart in the center for her tummy, as she smiled at them. "It would take a week for me to clear all the junk out!"

"It's no trouble at all," said Harmony.

"Well, let's take the boxes outside, shall we?" said True Heart.

"Sure thing!" said Bright Heart and Harmony, as they picked up some boxes to carry outside. As True Heart lead the way, one of the books fell out as the box couldn't close all the way due to the amount of its contents. It fell out and landed on the floor. Bright Heart saw it and quickly put the box down that he was holding.

"I'll get that for you, True Heart," he said as he went over and picked up the book, dusting it off. He was about to put the book back in the box when the cover caught his eye.

He saw a crystal-like heart symbol on the cover, but the rest was covered with dust, so Bright Heart had to use a feather duster to get rid of the rest of the dust to get a better view. Once he dusted it, he could now see the rest of the front cover. Its faded grey color with seven crystal shaped hearts and an ancient inscription title that he could not make out. He opened the book and saw more ancient writing along with some images.

"Hey True Heart," said Bright Heart. "What kind of book is this?"

"Hmmm?" said True Heart as she set the box down and walked over to Bright Heart. Harmony too set the box down and went over to them to see what's going on.

"Here," he said as he showed the two bears the book. True Heart took a look at it and gasped. She quickly grabbed it out of Bright Heart's hands and opened it up to flip through the pages. Harmony and Bright Heart were just there, confused at True Heart's behavior.

"Um, True Heart?" asked Harmony. "May we ask what you know about this book?"

"This book," says True Heart. "Is about a history of how Care-A-Lot came to be before Noble Heart and I came along."

"That sounds interesting," said Bright Heart as he, Harmony, and True Heart gathered around together to study the book.

(End flashback)

"So I offered to do a research and I spent a week to decipher the lost language and learn more about the original Care-A-Lot." said Bright Heart. "Once I deciphered it, I learned about the history of the Care-A-Lot, the Three Caring Goddesses, and the Seven Caring Guardians. The Guardians caught my interest as they held Crystal Caring Hearts, each Crystal Hearts carrying unique elements. Their ancient temple and the kingdom were on an island so I gathered Good Luck Bear, Proud Heart Cat, Lotsa Heart Elephant, Grumpy Bear, Harmony Bear, and Sea Friend Bear for my expedition crew."

(Flashback)

"All right everyone," said Bright Heart. "Are you ready to find the ancient Care-A-Lot Kingdom?"

"YEAH!" shouted the Bears and Cousins except Grumpy.

"Yeah," he said grumpily due to getting up early instead of sleeping in.

"Then lets head out!" said Bright Heart, as they docked up their cloud ship with a giant star face as a sail. Once they finished loading up their ship, they assumed positions.

"Set sail for the ancient island!" shouted Sea Friend Bear, a male light blue bear with an ocean wave with a sun riding on it for his tummy symbol, as he steered away from the dock and headed out to the ocean.

They had been out sailing for two days and by the third day, Grumpy was getting impatient.

"Bright Heart, are we there yet?" asked Grumpy as he was tired and grumpy at the same time.

"We should be getting very close soon, Grumpy," said Bright Heart as he looked at the map.

"We'd better be there," snapped Grumpy.

Three hours has passed and Grumpy's patience was growing thin. He stepped out of the cabin to find Bright Heart when he heard Lotsa Heart's voice.

"LAND HO!" shouted Lotsa Heart.

"Finally!" said Grumpy.

Bright Heart looked over the railing and could see the land off the distance. He was feeling quite excited when they arrived and disembarked from the cloud ship to explore.

Bright Heart, Lotsa Heart, Proud Heart, Good Luck, and Grumpy walked towards the ruins of the ancient kingdom. The castle was almost gone, just the broken pillars were in place. They entered inside the castle and saw a shrine room with seven mini pillars with strange symbols etched onto them.

"Care Bears and Care Cousins," said Bright Heart. "I believe we just discovered something very important of our Care-A-Lot history."

"YEAH!" they all cheered then they brought out their equipment to begin their expedition.

(End flashback)

"We spent the last four days exploring and researching. We bought back the artifacts and took some photos of the temple," said Bright Heart as he laid out the photos and the seven strange artifacts that resembled badges of the crystal heart symbol etched onto them. All of them were stone colored except one which was glowing in orange glow.

"This one," he said as he picked up the glowing artifact. "Was glowing on our final day of our expedition. The pillar with the same symbol like this is also glowing. We tried putting it onto the pillar but nothing happened, and we noticed that the others weren't showing any reaction like this one. The biggest question is, why only this one and not the others? What does it mean?"

"Very interesting, Bright Heart," said Tenderheart. "Perhaps you should study more so we can learn and found out why. It must mean something."

"That is what I'm planning to do, Tenderheart," said Bright Heart.

"All right then," said Tenderheart. He then turned around to face the rest of his family. "The Care Bears Conference is now adjourned!"

Everyone gather up and left. Tenderheart headed outside to find his cloudmobile and found Friend, Secret, Bedtime, and Braveheart getting ready to leave.

"Hey guys!" yelled Tenderheart. "Do you mind if I can come along? I'd like to see Nicholas too, as well as Haley."

"Sure," said Braveheart. "The more the merrier."

He started the ignition and off they went to Earth to help out people who need some caring.


End file.
